A micromouse inspired major pride for University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Engineering students Alex Zamora and Tyson Seto-Mook, whose creation captured first place in 2009 regional competition.

The challenge: design and build an autonomous robot mouse, no larger than 25 centimeters by 25 centimeters and controlled by a microprocessor, that can learn the fastest route though a maze in under 10 minutes.

It took diminutive rodent robot Alfalfa just 1:11.29 to master the route from starting point to center square—two and a half minutes ahead of the next closest competitor.

UH engineering teams swept the top seven places in the maze competition. UH students also won the top three awards in the packaging (construction and design) competition plus first place in the student paper competition (for Beyond the Maze by Joseph Longhi, Malcolm Menor and Shane Sunada).